Indigenous caucus to advise Thunder Bay in recreation planning: city

The newly-adopted recreation and facilities master plan for the City of Thunder Bay was drawn up with "significant" input from Indigenous stakeholders in the area, according to the city's project manager who oversaw the plan's development.

Recommendations from the inquest into the deaths of seven First Nations students in Thunder Bay, Ont. called for Indigenous voices to be present as the city created the plan that will govern how sports and recreation facilities are developed over the next 12 to 15 years.

City officials also testified during the inquest that they were committed to ensuring that was the case.

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"We made some good progress there," project manager Lou Morrow said of the meetings he said the city had with representatives from Fort William First Nation, the local chapter of the Metis Nation of Ontario and other Metis organizations, the Regional Multicultural Youth Council and the education department of Matawa First Nations Management, among others.

"We're interested in removing barriers specific to Indigenous youth, so we see opportunities there, but it's not something that we're going to be in a position to do independently," he continued.

"So it's important to sit down with the community and have discussions on ideas to remove those barriers."

The recreation and facilities master plan was approved by city council Monday night.

Discussions during the plan's formation led to efforts to create an Indigenous caucus in 2017 that will continue to advise the city as how best to address service gaps, come up with new programs and ensure that more First Nations young people have access to local recreation that serves their needs, Morrow said.

"It's important to maintain focus on that," he added.

'Just because the facilities are there, does not necessarily guarantee they're accessible'

Ensuring that Thunder Bay remembers the interests of Indigenous youth during the recreation plan's roll out is crucial, according to Moffat Makuto, who works at the Regional Multicultural Youth Centre in the city.

The centre is also responsible for after-school programming at Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations High School.

Makuto, who said he, along with young people from the centre, participated in the city's consultation sessions, added that building and maintaining facilities is important, but ensuring that Indigenous youth as well as immigrants have access.

"We need to do more outreach to connect them to these facilities so that they can take advantage of them," he said, adding that teenagers from remote communities don't necessarily have the money, access to transportation or knowledge of rules and protocol surrounding obtaining memberships or booking time at a rink or park.

"Just because the facilities are there does not necessarily guarantee they're accessible."

Having an Indigenous advisory body in place can help with this, and provide valuable input, Makuto said.

"Once you engage groups then they can tell you what their priorities are, what are the barriers they are finding and what are some of the things they would need in order to have access to these facilities," he said.